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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-26 Daily Xml
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HOMOPHOBIA, AFRICA

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:23): On Saturday 15 May, I joined hundreds of protestors on the steps of this building to observe IDAHO, the International Day Against Homophobia. While gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Australians continue to experience homophobia and discrimination, it is the horror currently faced by homosexuals in Africa that I wish to draw attention to today.

Out of the 58 countries in Africa, homosexuality is criminalised in 38. Homosexuals in Africa experience organised beatings, blackmail, death threats, harassment, public naming in newspapers, even so-called correctional rape and, of course, murder—and in many cases it is with the tacit approval and sometimes involvement of the authorities. We might think that this situation arises as a hangover from colonialism in Africa, but this is not always the case, for today we are seeing the deliberate encouragement of this homophobia by American evangelical Christians.

Uganda is an extreme example of the rising tide of homophobia in Africa. Recently, I wrote to Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, to express my strong objection to the anti-homosexuality bill currently before the Ugandan parliament. The bill proposes the death penalty for homosexuals and gaol for anyone who does not report suspected gay or lesbian activity within 24 hours. This includes family, friends and medical professionals.

This bill is of enormous concern. It is a direct violation of Uganda's own constitution and international human rights laws. If passed it will force doctors, counsellors and other service providers to abandon their professional ethics or face the consequences. If we dig deeper, the story behind this bill should cause greater alarm, for Uganda has become a recruiting ground for US conservative evangelical Christians. These US evangelical conservatives were once isolated from Africa for supporting pro-apartheid, white supremacist regimes, but in the past decade they have successfully reinvented themselves.

Although lacking enthusiasm to tackle entrenched poverty and disadvantage amongst African Americans in the United States, these white religious conservatives dominate social services in Uganda, running orphanages, schools, universities and health facilities. They bring with them a seemingly endless supply of finance, Christian television networks and a vicious anti-gay campaign.

In March 2009 three prominent American conservatives—Scott Lively, Don Schmierer and Caleb Lee Brundidge—visited Uganda to give a series of talks about the so-called gay agenda. Scott Lively is the author of The Pink Swastika—which blames the holocaust on gay people—and the author of 7 Steps to Recruit-proof Your Child. Mr Lively believes that legalising homosexuality is on par with accepting the molestation of children or having sex with animals.

Some of the other US conservatives who have strong ties to Africa include Lou Engle, an American anti-gay extremist who, as recently as 2 May this year, spoke in Uganda of his support for the anti-homosexuality legislation. He claims that same sex marriage 'will release a spirit that is more demonic than Islam, a spirit of lawlessness and anarchy, and a sexual insanity will be unleashed into the Earth'.

Reverend Rick Warren has compared homosexuality to paedophilia and claims that 'homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus not a human right'. The Institute on Religion and Democracy is a neoconservative think tank that for decades has sought to undermine Protestant denominations' traditions of progressive social justice work.

These US right-wing evangelicals have imposed their own prejudices onto Africa and are spreading a gospel of hate. It is no coincidence that, one month after the March 2009 conference, a Ugandan politician who boasts of having evangelical friends in the American government, introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009. This bill has brought out into the open the sinister, anti-gay campaign led by US conservatives in Africa.

This religious terror campaign waged against an innocent minority is really a proxy for a bigger fight. Africa is collateral damage in America's domestic war between liberals and conservatives—a war between US evangelicals and mainstream Protestants. That is where the real heart of this issue lies.

While most conservative African religious and political leaders now view homosexuality as an immoral western import, the truth is that it is not homosexuality that has been imported from the west but, rather, homophobia. While the US fundamentalists watch with dismay the advance of human rights legislation in their own country, they are heavily investing in a new fundamentalist empire in Africa.

It is an insidious disease, exporting hatred and bigotry to a region still struggling with a history of racial intolerance and social instability, and it may have further disastrous ramifications. We do not have to look too far back to remember what happened in Rwanda when a majority in a country decided to target a minority group for political purposes.

I call on the federal government to condemn this Ugandan bill and to make sure that Australian aid organisations and money does not go to any organisation associated with these religious bigots.

Time expired.

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